1. Introductory Comments

The materials
included here under the rubric of "What Is Intelligence?" deal
with defining and explaining the basic subject matter of "intelligence"
as a field of government activity and, increasingly, as a field of academic
study either separately or as part of exploring the broader areas of national
security issues and policy.

If you
can only read one book to try to understand what intelligence is all about,
my recommendation is Abram N. Shulsky, Silent Warfare: Understanding
the World of Intelligence, 3d ed. (New York: Brassey's, 2001).

Below are definitions of intelligence from a general dictionary and a specialized dictionary, some thoughts on the subject by John Macartney and Charles Gillen (both comments are taken from posts made to the alt.politics.org.cia newsgroup several years ago), and other attempts to define intelligence.

2. Dictionary Definitions

a. American Heritage Dictionary

The American
Heritage Dictionary, Standard Edition, offers the following definitions
of "intelligence," the last two of which are directly relevant
to this discussion:

1. a. The capacity to acquire
and apply knowledge. b. The faculty of thought and reason. c.
Superior powers of mind.

4. a. Secret information,
especially about an actual or potential enemy. b. An agency, a staff,
or an office employed in gathering such information. c. Espionage
agents, organizations, and activities considered as a group.

b. International Dictionary of Intelligence

The International
Dictionary of Intelligence defines intelligence as "the product
resulting from the collecting and processing of information concerning actual
and potential situations and conditions relating to domestic and foreign
activities and to domestic and foreign or US and enemy-held areas."
Leo D. Carl, International Dictionary of Intelligence (McLean, VA:
Maven Books, 1990).

3. John Macartney, "How Do You Define Intelligence?"

"[T]here
is no agreed upon definition of intelligence. Both scholars and practitioners
continue to debate this issue.

"The
textbook in widest use in college courses (and the one I myself use at American
University) is Abe Shulsky's, Silent Warfare: Understanding Intelligence,
2nd ed., Brassey's, 1993. Although an otherwise excellent book, it defines
intelligence very differently than either I or the U.S. Intelligence Community
do.

"Shulsky
postulates 'two views' of intelligence. There is, he writes, the 'traditional
view,' stemming from the 6th century BC writings of Sun Tzu, that Shulsky
(and others including Roy Godson and Angelo Codevilla) advocate. Intelligence
is seen primarily in military or national security terms, as part of the
'silent warfare' between nations and consisting of four basic elements:
collection, analysis, covert action and counterintelligence. The emphasis
is on espionage, covert action, counterintelligence and deception as well
as 'opportunity analysis.' From that definition comes the belief that the
U.S. Intelligence Community should stick to collecting and analyzing the
secrets of adversaries. It should not concern itself much with open source
information, nor with 'nontraditional' subjects such as, for example, international
trade, organized crime, global pollution, or the AIDS epidemic.

"Note
that Shulsky's definition is prescriptive rather descriptive. That is, it
advocates the way he believes U.S. intelligence OUGHT to operate. But it
differs from the way intelligence actually functions today within the U.S.
Government. That confuses my students, especially since I part company with
the Shulsky prescription, and therefore his definition.

"The
competing viewpoint and definition stems from what Shulsky describes as
the 'American view' of intelligence, which has its origins in the 1949 academic
writings of Yale historian Sherman Kent, of OSS and CIA fame. In that view,
which is essentially the one to which the U.S. Intelligence Community subscribes,
intelligence is basically information about the world collected and supplied
to U.S. policymakers. Because intelligence comes from both open and clandestine
sources, in this 'American view,' and because it covers all foreign policy
relevant subjects, trade agreements and global pollution, for example, along
with traditional national security threats, U.S. intelligence is a much
bigger enterprise than Shulsky would have it. Also, in this 'American view,'
analysis is the core of the intelligence business rather than espionage,
counterintelligence, covert action and deception.

"This
'American view' and definition is captured very well in the paragraph below,
which begins the CIA's recent consumer's guide to intelligence (CIA, Washington,
DC, Sep. 1993, updated Feb. 1994):

Reduced to its simplest terms, intelligence is knowledge
and foreknowledge of the world around us. The prelude to decision and action
by U.S. policymakers. Intelligence organizations provide this information
in a fashion that helps consumers, either civilian leaders or military
commanders, to consider alternative options and outcomes. The intelligence
process involves the painstaking and generally tedious collection of facts,
their analysis, quick and clear evaluations, production of intelligence
assessments, and their timely dissemination to consumers. Above all, the
analytical process must be rigorous, timely, and relevant to policy needs
and concerns.

"Although I agree fully with CIA's definition, above, the one I use in class is a bit shorter. As I define it for my students, intelligence is a dedicated and usually tailored foreign information support service for government policymakers, planners and implementors. I consider, as Congress does, counterintelligence and covert action to be Intelligence Related Activities. They are very important, in my view, but they are not intelligence per se. I also make very clear to my students what U.S. intelligence is not. Forget Hollywood caricatures, I tell them, intelligence is not policy or policymaking, police or law enforcement, special operations, or green berets. Nor is it James Bond or Jack Ryan."

4. Charles Gillen

"'Intelligence'
is merely knowledge. As with beauty, its worth lies in the eye of the beholder.
The value of a particular bit of information depends on who knows it, who
knows which others also know it, when it was learned, what other bits of
related info are also known, and what the knowers can do with it. All these
points are beautifully illustrated in a common case of insider stock-trading.

"Please
note that in many instances, even 'overt' bits of information known to many
may easily become useful 'intelligence' if some of the factors noted above
come into play, where added value may lead to unobvious conclusions and
significant counter-actions.

"On
this basis, it is easy to argue that 'open source' collection should not
be neglected, and perhaps should be a branch of the 'covert' collecting
organization, as centralized processing of the two info streams is bound
to convert more of such free 'information' into 'intelligence.'"

"* Counterintelligence. Information gathered, and activities conducted, to protect against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage, or assassinations conducted by or on behalf of foreign governments or elements thereof, foreign organizations, or foreign persons, or international terrorist activities. (186) [Ibid.]

"* Criminal Intelligence. Data which has been evaluated to determine that it is relevant to the identification of and the criminal activity engaged in by an individual who or organization which is reasonably suspected of involvement in criminal activity.... (187) [See Code of Federal Regulations, Part 23]"

6. Canadian Forces Intelligence Branch Association

"Intelligence is just the process for finding out
what one needs to know. With that in mind, it is important to understand
the distinction between intelligence and mere information. These definitions
can be found online in the NATO glossary.

"INFORMATION is just that -- unprocessed
material of every description that can be used to produce intelligence.
It is, in essence, 'raw data.'

"INTELLIGENCE, on the other hand,
is the product that results from processing raw information."

The above is an excerpt from the Association's on-line article, "Just What is Intelligence Anyway?"

7. A Note on Terminology: "Agent"

The following
is from John Macartney, as posted on "Cloaks-and-Daggers Open Discussion of Intelligence (Academic)" <CLOAKS-AND-DAGGERS@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>:

"To intelligence professionals, an
agent is the foreign national, the informant, that is committing treason
and 'spying' on his or her own country. But in the press, the term 'agent,'
as in 'CIA agent' or 'M.I.6 agent,' usually means, erroneously, a CIA officer
or an M.I.6 officer. That is, career employees, case officers, rather than
their foreign informants."